TNK-BP recruiting foreign staffers

MOSCOW, June 16 (UPI) -- Anglo-Russian oil venture TNK-BP is moving to bring foreign staffers on board to shore up a drop in the numbers of non-Russian employees, officials say.

TNK-BP, a joint venture between BP and Alfa-Access-Renova group, a group representing Russian tycoons, shook up its staff last year amid a bitter dispute over the corporate makeup.

The dispute culminated in the ouster of Robert Dudley in December, who had fled Moscow citing "harassment." An arrangement following the ouster of Dudley gives BP the right to pick a Russian-speaking candidate, though TNK-BP board members and AAR must sanction the decision.

Former Chief Operating Officer Tim Summers has served as acting CEO since Dudley stepped down.

BP and AAR backed the hiring of foreign staffers to oversee plans to keep production levels static and for the development of new resource fields, the Financial Times reports.

In the corporate dispute, TNK-BP will put two executives, Pavel Skitovich, a former gold and investment manager, and Maxim Barsky, a former chief at the independent Russian oil company West Siberian Resources, in direct competition for the role of chief executive as the management row drags on.

Meanwhile, TNK-BP, in a rare move given the rise in energy prices, announced recent plans to increase its capital spending to $3.4 billion for 2009, a 13 percent increase from last year.